All Things Working Together

When it’s time for a believer to be at a certain point of spiritual maturity in the Lord Jesus Christ, and this person has no recognition or awareness of this appointed place, it can be said that he or she is asleep as it relates to their spiritual appointment. Many will argue that this isn’t true, but our circumstances will bear it out repeatedly. Even as believers, sometimes our lives come to a standstill. It seems that things just aren’t moving, and we’re not as satisfied or fulfilled as we once were. We have a choice. We can remain at a standstill or we can accept the reality that we’re late for our spiritual appointment, and we need to seek God with all our hearts and minds, because He has some place for us to be.

Make no mistake, there’s a place where everything for us comes together in an amazing and fulfilling way. Romans 8:28(ESV) says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Be clear that ‘all things working together for good’ is a process of God’s perfect timing. It doesn’t mean that our circumstances and conditions are continually in a state of bliss. We live on earth where people and things are coming against us all the time. Jesus Christ told us in John 16:33 that in the world we will have tribulation, but we can be encouraged because he overcame the world, and through him, we will too.

So ‘all things working together’ is not a drop-off location where things are perfect and pleasing as punch. We don’t get to remain planted there with our hands tucked beneath our laps. But this is the way some of us have trained our minds to think. We forget that this earth experience is grooming ground for our faith, and that our faith will indeed get a workout here. Instead, we have immediacy on the brain. When we’re in a bind or we’re expecting an answer to prayer, we want things working out on the double. Again, ‘All things working together’ is a continual process where we have a starting point and a destination according to our faith. And as soon as we we’ve reached one destination and gained a higher level of faith; another starting point will be revealed.

‘All things working together for our good’ is God working powerfully behind the scenes. We can’t see all the details of what He’s doing, and this is one of the reasons that so many of us become anxious and worried that things are not going to work out. We lose faith because our timetables lack the patience and endurance that God is requiring of us.

Stamina and momentum are not words we typically hear in Christian vernacular, but we should hear them more often because they are very important to our walk in Christ. Stamina and momentum have everything to do with the endurance and patience that God expects all believers to produce. He tells us in Hebrew 12:1(NLT), “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Notice in this verse that God didn’t tell us that HE would strip off every weight that slows us down. He’s given this responsibility to us, and when we reach a point in life where the weight is barreling down on us, we should know that it’s stripping off time. The longer we wait to strip it off, the more stamina and momentum we lose.

Our blessings are not delayed, we’ve yet to catch up to them. God does not slow the rotation of the earth to catch up with our pace; we must catch up to His pace. This is one of the reasons He is continually reminding us in His Word to put on our new nature which is created to be like Christ. If we do this, we will be prepared for all that God has in store. Some of us have delayed our spiritual growth and maturity to such a degree that our eyes no longer recognize opportunities. They slip right by us. God has designed the universe in such a way that it is continually pouring out the overflow of His blessings, but we’ve not positioned ourselves to be at the right place at the right time.

1Corinthians 14:33 (NKJV) tells us, “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace.” Heavenly Father is a God of order, and one of the greatest disservices we commit against ourselves is to underestimate His nature of peace and His allegiance to structure and order. You and I don’t have the mental and emotional capacity to absorb the true majesty and supremacy of God. It is impossible to even skim the surface of it without the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is one of the reasons why God is so patient with us. He doesn’t punish us for not reading and studying His Word. He leaves the level of intimacy in our relationship with Him totally up to us. We can seek Him first, or we can seek other things, but we will always move at a snail’s pace to blessings if we don’t seek God with all our hearts, minds, and strength.

Romans 8:28 reminds us that God has called us to His purpose. The revelation of our purpose in the Will of God must combine with our intelligence and intention to walk it out. Many of us are finding ourselves in a predicament of stagnancy when it comes to blessings, and it is most often due to the failure to soak in the knowledge of God’s Word and connect it to purpose and action. This causes us to lose momentum on this Christian journey, and it decreases our strength and ability to reach out and grab what is rightfully ours.

Blessings come from our knowledge of the Word of God. When we’re in a season in our lives where we’re not seeing the kind of movement we expect, it isn’t a time to be complacent. It’s a season to seek God like never before and draw nearer to Him with the full assurance that He will draw nearer to us. In Revelation 3:2 (NLT), God warned, “Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God.” Everything, and I do mean absolutely everything is spiritual. The Spirit of God is forever and always causing all things to work together for our good. The closer we draw to our Heavenly Father, the more we will see the many blessings He’s placed before us, and we’ll have the spiritual strength to reach out and grab them. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“All Things Working Together”, written by Reverend Fran Mack. Edits by Kim Times and K. Stephens for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.